How should a methanol storage tank at atmospheric pressure be heated to 45 degrees Celsius?

Are there any safety issues when using 90-degree hot water to heat methanol? I’m in a hurry, thanks!

Why must methanol be heated? At least a reason should be given

Q: 1. The vent pipeline with DN50 size connects to the spray tower and ultimately to the atmosphere; a flame arrester is installed there. Will there be significant losses if the temperature is raised to 45 degrees Celsius? A: At 45°C, the saturated vapor pressure of methanol is 46 kPa. Assuming an atmospheric pressure of 100 kPa, in the gas phase above the storage tank, methanol vapor accounts for about 46% of the total volume – which is nearly half. In cases of typical large-scale operations such as loading and unloading, the losses are significant. You can do the calculations yourself: if two batches of material are transferred each day, and 10 m3 of air is discharged, with 46% of that being methanol, how much methanol will be discharged over the course of a year? It’s about 4.7 tons, right? Is this a significant loss? Furthermore, the vent pipe is connected to the spray tower; what do you use to wash methanol? Use water? That is a dilute methanol solution. Do you have any methods for recycling it? Rather than using a spray tower, it would be better to employ a condenser to condense the methanol vapor; the resulting condensate can then return to the storage tank, which yields much better results. Q: 2. Is the methanol vent line prone to explosion? How should it be designed to reduce risks and ensure safety? A: The flash point of methanol is around 12°C, and it belongs to Category A liquids; therefore, explosion prevention measures must be considered for the venting pipelines. The venting pipes of methanol storage tanks must be equipped with flame arresters, or breather valves with flame arrestor functionality should be used. . Q: 3. How do you vent your methanol storage tanks? Can’t be released into the atmosphere? A: I’ve never seen a methanol storage tank that needs to be heated to 45°C like this. I guess a small tank of around 5 m3 is merely an intermediate tank; releasing the methanol into the atmosphere is not allowed. In addition to the method of using a chilled water condenser mentioned earlier, nitrogen can also be used for protection – filling the tank with nitrogen can reduce the partial pressure of methanol and thus minimize losses. Of course, many poorly managed factories in China simply release the substance into the atmosphere; after all, the volume involved is small, so the losses aren’t significant – 5 tons of methanol is only worth a few thousand yuan, and many companies don’t bother to account for such a small amount of money. Intermediate tanks generally don’t trigger direct inspections by environmental authorities (if there are any inspections, they focus on the larger tanks in the storage area). In methanol tanks, it is very rare for the exhaust gas to be sent directly to a scrubbing tower, unless the scrubbing liquid used has absorbed methanol and is intended for another purpose.

I would like to ask how to determine the fire separation distance for such a small methanol storage tank with a capacity of 5 cubic meters?

45 degrees Celsius; it’s likely a project located in Africa. In this case, only a spraying system needs to be added.